


Keeping Things Professional

by leakyotterpop



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Humor, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 19:50:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7858849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leakyotterpop/pseuds/leakyotterpop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young engineer gets an opportunity to meet with the legendary Asami Sato, but finds the CEO to be quite… eccentric.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping Things Professional

72… 73… 74…

Just watching the dial continue to climb gave Risa an uneasy feeling. She took another deep breath, and turned to inspect her reflection one final time in the black glass covering the back wall of the elevator. As she fidgeted with her police uniform, the black suddenly slid away to reveal an incredible view of Republic City. The rooftops of neighboring skyscrapers fell away and whatever fear of heights yielded to awe. The urban sprawl before her caught the afternoon sun, and gleamed in tune with the waves of the harbor.

The ding caught her off guard. Doors slid open to reveal a sparsely lit windowless hall. Her shoes clicked against the dark granite floors, the sound reverberating off deeply crimson walls, until she finally arrived at large, ornate doors that were cracked open ever so slightly. She stopped just short of it and turned towards her right, at what would likely be a secretary’s desk. A vacant seat was neatly pushed in.

Risa figured that it was probably best that she wait for the secretary to return. As she was about to take a seat, the gasp of a woman behind the door made her freeze. The sound was shortly followed by a crash and an exasperated groan. She cautiously made her way to door, prepared to knock. As she raised her fist, curiosity got the best of her, and she gently pushed against the door to peer inside.

At the far side of the office sat Asami Sato, eyes closed, brows furrowed, lips slightly parted. She was leaning far back in her seat, and unlike in all the newsreels and the papers, her hair was tousled and she was wearing only a thin, lavender shirt. One of her hands was splayed out against the granite slab that topped the tall desk. Papers, pencils, and other objects were strewn about the desk and the floor surrounding it.

The door began to make a sharp squeak that jolted Asami to attention. In one swift motion she straightened herself in her seat and turned it to face the desk. Her hands gripped the edge of the desk as she stared wide-eyed at Risa, mouth now agape.

“I… I’m sorry, Miss Sato. I didn’t, uh, I didn’t mean to intrude and interrupt your nap,” she managed to stammer out.

Asami’s stunned expression remained. She looked down at her desk and said quietly, “My nap.”

Words just came tumbling out of Risa. “Yeah, I mean it’s no excuse really but I was waiting out front and it sounded like something fell so I wanted to see if everything was okay and I apologize for-”  
  
“Oh no, please, no need to apologize at all,” Asami said with a sheepish chuckle, “I was just…” Asami paused, her jade eyes darting around at the mess before her. “Napping. I was just napping. And I had an... _intense_ dream. Which is why I must have knocked a few things over. Yes. Clumsy me.” She looked down again and tried and failed to suppress a hard laugh. Once she caught her breath, she looked back at Risa. “You must be Risa, Lin’s engineer. Please, have a seat.” She gestured to the one seat in front of her desk that remained upright, flanked by toppled counterparts.

Risa was about to sit when she noticed that a crumpled and slightly torn suit jacket already occupied the seat. She looked towards Asami, who stared blankly at it. “You can go ahead and throw that aside.” Risa complied and carefully placed it on the ground beside the chair before taking her seat.

Asami leaned forward and rested the elbows of her crossed arms on the desk. “So, Risa, I take it Lin has already briefed you about the project?”  
  
“Yes. I also had a chance to review the schematics you made for the initial proposal. They’re absolutely incredible. I just want to go over some of the details. I have a few ideas for-”  
  
Asami’s abrupt groan stopped Risa’s sentence. A moment of silence and unbroken eye contact followed, until finally ended by a loud, dry cough from Asami.

“Uh, I’m really sorry about that. Just had a bit of a sore throat. Please, continue.”

“Oh, um, no problem. I had a few ideas for improving the performance of the ‘spools’. I was thinking that if we used two smaller spools with faster initial response, and one larger spool to act as a flywheel, we could perhaps make the cables accelerate more linearly.”

As Risa spoke, she noticed Asami sliding deeper into thought. Brows furrowed and eyes squeezed shut, she was humming ever so quietly.

“The capacitors that are meant to keep the memory wire taut are outputting excess charge. If we incorporate motors adjacent to them, we can increase the initial response without using-”  
  
“Stop it,” muttered Asami angrily, her expression unchanging. She opened her eyes once she noticed Risa’s silence and looked apologetically towards her. “Oh, no,” she exclaimed, “I wasn’t talking to you.” She glanced furtively to the left and right of Risa, as if she were looking for another person in the room.

“I was just talking to myself. I just had a thought that I was trying to _shake away_ because it was _interrupting_ me from listening to what you were saying. This is definitely a brilliant idea and it won’t be hard to implement with the existing capacitors,” Asami said, finishing with an embarrassed smile. 

“Oh, great.” Risa breathed out a sigh of relief. “I thought I said something stupid.”  
  
“Of course not. Now, please, go on. I’d love to hear more.”  
  
“Okay. As for the cable, the memory metal you suggested is much more brittle when electrified…”

Although Risa was able to continue without interruption, Asami’s behavior grew more and more peculiar; she gradually leaned forward onto her desk, her flat palms sliding further and further away until they were grabbing and pulling at the front edge, her knuckles white with strain.

A gust of wind from a large nearby window blew dozens of papers off a drafting table behind Asami. A wooden stick of some sort that was propped against the table toppled with the breeze. Risa wondered why a window would even be open this high up a skyscraper. Perhaps it came ajar on its own. She stood, prepared to go and close it and gather the papers.

“ _NO!_ No. Don’t worry about that. Must be a faulty latch or something. Go on.”

Asami’s eccentricities continued to develop. Despite the chilliness in the room, beads of sweat formed on her forehead, until they began to roll down the side of her face. At first, she was staring through her, with a wincing face and pursed lips as if she had eaten something sour. Her expression became more tortured until she looked as if she was about to sneeze, but somehow managed to hold it back indefinitely.

It was getting to a point where Risa just had to stop and assert, “Miss Sato, are you absolutely _sure_ that everything is alright?”

Asami was biting down hard on her lower lip. She nodded furiously. Between her short, heavy breaths, she rasped out, “just coming… coming down hard with… some illness of some sort. Probably the flu or something.”

A powerful gust slammed the window behind her into its frame, the glass cracking. Asami and Risa straightened up in their seats and turned to face the commotion. Not even a second passed before there was a loud bang from beneath Asami’s desk. Someone, neither Asami, nor Risa, shouted in pain. Something underneath had knocked the granite top askew, and the desk, now out of balance began to topple away from Asami. “Oh no no no no,” said the mysterious third voice as the desk came crashing down, the granite top splitting in two and collapsing on the floor. Risa gasped at the sight before her.

There sat Asami Sato, her face scrunched, her jodhpurs, belt, and lacy underwear all around her calves. A flat hand pressed against her sex in a last-ditch attempt to keep her decent. It was Avatar Korra’s hand, who was there, kneeling between Asami’s legs. The Avatar’s other hand gripped Asami’s knee. Her deep blue vest hung off of just one shoulder, leaving her back mostly bare.

There they all were, players in a scene of which they all wanted no part. Eons passed before anyone dared to make a move. Korra was the first and only one to break the stillness, first wiping her mouth against her forearm, but keeping her other arm planted in that crucial spot. She kept her torso completely still, only turning her head to look over her shoulder. She wore that diffident smile she had seen in every photo of her in the papers, and meekly said, “Hi.”

Risa didn’t know what to say. She had shared same room for nearly half an hour with arguably the most powerful person in Republic City, while arguably the most powerful person-and-spirit in human-and-spirit history had been going down on her. Nothing ever really prepared her for that. She found herself hastily backing out of the room and through the hall, back to the elevator. As she stood and waited for the doors to close, and her mind to catch up, she heard the sound of boots rapidly clicking against the floor.

Asami slipped through the door just before it closed. As they began to drop down into the skyline below, she spoke. “Risa, I am _truly_ , _terribly_ sorry for... that. I really wanted to have this meeting with you. It’s just that some things came, uh, came up that I wasn’t anticipating. You’re probably furious with me and you have every right to be. What I did was so rude and wrong and you don’t deserve it and-”

“It’s alright, Miss Sato. I’m not upset.” Asami seemed stunned at Risa’s words. “Okay, maybe I’m a little upset, but I read in the papers this morning about the Avatar returning from the Earth Nation and I think I understand. I take it you don’t get to see her as often as you like.”

Asami smiled warmly. She shook her head and chuckled a little.

Risa continued, “The new police gear is _your_  project; not Lin’s, and certainly not mine. So, I mean, I guess, thank you, for thinking about the safety of us non-benders on the force.”

“I can’t believe you’re thanking me after that absolute disaster back there.”

The two women shared a laugh together. “What can I say, I’m a big fan. You two are pretty cute together.” said Risa with a wink.

A blush crept up Asami’s cheeks, “I was planning on asking you anyway, regardless of how this meeting turned out, if you wanted to come over for dinner with Korra and I. We can talk about things further, hopefully without distraction, and after we can go to my workshop after and hammer out a prototype.”

“I’d love to.” Before Risa could get started about spools and capacitors again, the ding caught her off guard. The doors slid open to reveal Korra, slightly out of breath, glider staff in hand.

“Hi there Asami, good to see you. Oh, who is this lovely person who I’ve never met before? Hello, I’m Korra.” She held out a hand to shake, but Risa merely stared at it.

 

Korra realized. She quickly put it down and outstretched her other hand.


End file.
